Guild Wars 2

I understand that there are changes for WvW in the offing, but I also am keenly aware that changes to WvW have not always aligned with what many players would consider optimal. I would like to address the direction of changes in WvW. This may be lengthy, though I intend to keep it simple. It may as a consequence occasionally sound pedagogic, but I am trying to be thorough. If you know the issues, you can more or less skim by heading. I have italicized two of the major points.

I direct this at all audiences: to the developer who is crafting these changes; to the newcomer who may not the know the road we have traveled or why we say what we do; to the veteran who may be able to add to, discuss, or correct something I have written. I would start with the basics.

What is WvW?
World vs. World is a competitive game mode that combines aspects of the other game modes in Guild Wars 2 in large-scale and extended confrontations between worlds to represent the conflict of the in-game “Mist War.”

How is WvW different from PvE?
In WvW, the principal competition is against other players. As such, game play calls for a variety of roles, rather than just doing damage. Furthermore, the challenge provided by other players can be expected to be steeper than that presented by mobiles.

How is WvW different from PvP?
First, WvW uses item-based equipment, like PvE, allowing for fine-tuning of statistics. Second, instead of competing in discrete matches of a few minutes each with even teams, players in WvW engage in extended and continuous matches over the course of a week in groups of all different sizes. Last, capturing objectives for points requires interactions with environmental objects that the participants create, encouraging comparatively complex strategies.

What makes WvW great?
WvW combines GW2’s horizontal end-game progression with its excellent group combat system to allow players to take on a variety of roles and to face high levels of competition in engagements on a grand scale that can truly excite the participants. At its best, WvW is the crown jewel of Guild Wars 2.

What went wrong?
WvW participation today is much lower than it was at peak — much lower, even, than last spring. Like any video game, GW2 has undergone changes over its life span. Many of these changes have been detrimental to the ideal of WvW as many of the game mode’s players envision it; and if these changes are consistent with the developers’ vision for the game mode, we do not know, for we are not invited to know any such item, but we do know that if these changes match their intent, their intent is much different from that of those who play the game that the developers are making.

WvW has never been without flaws. Victory in any given week frequently owes far more to a world’s gross participating population — and more importantly the distribution over time zones of that population — than to participants’ collective skill. The matchup system can produce stale repetition or sometimes wild imbalance. There are, of course, numerous bugs. However, for many participants, victory was not the most important thing. After all, there is nothing to win. The Mist War is eternal. The fundamental gameplay was what drew us in and kept us playing. This is what has changed.

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the steep decline in WvW participation. I propose that the most significant factor is that a great number of the aforementioned changes have encouraged players to congregate in larger and larger single groups in WvW: empowering large groups, removing incentives to separate, and even penalizing small groups. A list — perhaps incomplete — follows.

1. The Stability Change: Prior to the update of March, 2015, the Stability boon had only a duration, whereas now it has both a duration and an “intensity” mechanic that allows it to last for much less than that duration. Some guilds in WvW were considered specialists in a practice called “zerg-busting” or “blob-busting,” in which a small group (the exact number might depend on tier, but often in the neighborhood of 15 players) would engage and defeat much larger groups — often over twice its size — through the employment and execution of tight, sophisticated battle strategies. Central to the zerg-busting guilds’ capacity to accomplish this was Stability, which enabled the smaller group to maintain close contact with the enemy, both applying pressure and surviving.

With the change, Stability was now limited less by time than by the number of disabling effects the character encountered. How, then, does one group prevent another group from maintaining contact, applying pressure, and surviving? By increasing the number of disabling effects it applies to the other. How does a group increase the number of disabling effects it applies? By increasing the number of players in the group. In order to protect themselves from being defeated by more skillful groups, players were encouraged not to become more skillful themselves, but simply to collect larger numbers to them.

1b. Randomized Corruption: Stability could be removed by Corruption, a feat of the Necromancer, accomplished through the abilities Well of Corruption and Corrupt Boon. However, Stability was at a low priority to be removed, so the defense against this was to stack other boons ahead of it. Melee had to play smart; Necromancers had to play smart. This was changed such that Corruption now selects boons randomly, dramatically increasing the probability that a freely-thrown Corruption will fatally imperil an enemy.

2. Siege Disablers: This trap demands that a character dedicate a portion of its carried supply to shutting down an enemy machine. They immediately saw employment both offensively and defensively. In the former case, they were used to strike inoperative cannons and mortar so that they could not be used while they were being destroyed. The more members of an attacking force, the more spare supply exists to utilize these traps. One person with 10 supply can render impotent a device that cost 60. The more spare supply a group has, the better it can exploit this.

3. Automatic Upgrades: Objectives now require no maintenance. There is no reason for anyone to return to a structure once it is captured except if it is being attacked. If it is being attacked, there is little one can do on one’s own, so one might as well be traveling with the large group. If the objective is lost, no investment was lost with it outside of defensive siege machines placed inside — and I refer not simply to gold, but rather to the time taken in the past while an upgrade was building.

4. Permanent Waypoints: Protecting a keep with a waypoint was a major strategic item. A waypoint was not only an investment but it was crucial to maneuvering around the map. Multiple groups would break off from what they were doing in response to a call out of a big attack on a keep with a waypoint. Gaining a waypoint on an enemy’s BL was quite a blow, as it indicated not only the capture, but frequently also protection of a hotly-contested location while the waypoint built. Now it doesn’t mean as much; as soon as you take back the structure, the waypoint will be yours again. There is no reason to dedicate personnel to defense.

5. Structural Toughness: As objectives upgrade with nobody around, one expects that during periods of low activity, few objectives will trade hands and eventually many, without input, will reach maximum defenses, which in their current implementation require quite a lot of bashing to overcome, encouraging more siege weapons, a tactic which in turn demands more people.

6. Lord NPC Toughness: The NPC whose demise allows invaders to capture a structure has gotten quite a boost — more hit points, more damage, more abilities, and a defiance bar. This means the fight is more difficult for a small group, and, perhaps more meaningfully, takes longer. Previously, the time difference between a large group’s capture and a small group’s capture was not very much. It is now greater.

7. Sentries and the Marked effect: On the one hand, those little red-orange dots have been quite helpful in locating the few other souls on a nearly-empty borderland, allowing one to careen brazenly down cliffs in the hopes of intercepting the foe before you lose the scent, in a desperate quest for any kind of WvW action. However, by having an NPC simulate the role of the scout, one obviates the need for scouts. A cluster of dots tells me how many and where they are; the only thing a person could provide that this system does not is world and tag, but these don’t matter as much any more. All these out-of-work scouts are free to join the larger group.

8. Scribing and Guild Upgrades: Guild Upgrades, previously available to any guild that had unlocked them, have been migrated to a new system and stuck behind the wall of Scribing. Scribing, like any crafting profession, requires resources. The acquisition of these resources demands either in-game money or gathering. These take time. Excluding the real money>gems>gold exchange, this investment is generally equally available to all players, so one will progress more rapidly in Scribing the more helping hands it has around it. Certainly, larger guilds had an advantage over smaller guilds in gaining Influence, but the system was set up such that a small guild could focus its attention on WvW upgrades and reach them in good time. A small guild is painfully underequipped to take on the challenge of leveling Scribing and unlocking Guildhall Upgrades; it may be that they never bother with it, to say nothing of losing the benefit of cheaper-to-build guild siege machines. The system suggests that in order to take advantage of Guild upgrades for WvW, one ought to join a larger guild. As guilds rarely run multiple, separate groups at the same time, everyone now in that larger guild is going to be on the battlefield together.

9. New Maps: Size: The new maps, as many have established, are large and traversing them is somewhat convoluted. Dying imposes a harsh penalty as one must undertake a long run. Being in a large group decreases the probability of dying and increases the probability that if one does die, there will be someone else there to resurrect it.

New Maps: Waypoints: The above is reinforced by the inability to use one’s own waypoints on a BL to decrease travel time.

New Maps: Barriers: The new maps also feature structures that can be destroyed which inhibit movement by a member of either of the two forces that does not control the proximate objective. One must take a much longer route around the structure, destroy it, or capture the objective. The latter two options move much more quickly the larger a group with which one travels.

I could go on. This is the sum of these elements: A large group will find it exponentially easier to capture objectives than a small group will, and the former can easily employ defenses to prevent the latter from capturing anything. There is no need to travel few or singly, and in fact it is a danger. In any case, there is little to nothing a small group can accomplish. Combat goes not to the able but to the many. Every individual player is encouraged to join with a large group, resulting in one large group per world. When very large groups engage one another, especially within a structure, the resulting skill lag and frame rate issues make it unenjoyable for many, and simply a matter of numbers and environmental defenses. Furthermore, outside of a structure, combat becomes avoided as an unnecessary risk. Large, complicated maps discourage combat because it represents little more than lost time. As the large groups are avoiding one another, all that is left to them is to capture objectives in order. If an objective is lost, it is little worry, because the group will arrive there to recapture it before long.

Previousy, there was a tactical risk in massing all one’s troops in a single body. First, you could not be everywhere, and a small, agile force could take an objective from you before you could arrive to stop them. Second, the members of the mob are notoriously fickle. If a blob finds itself repeatedly defeated by a smaller group, some of those fighters you’ve picked up will begin to feel that they are losing, and they don’t like losing, and they will find somewhere else to play.

There are of course some players who enjoy gathering in a large group and running around capturing structures. The thing is, there was already a place for them: Edge of the Mists. Plenty of people spend hours a day there. They accumulate karma and loot; they gain ranks; occasionally they get in a fight but it’s not the focus. EotM fulfills this desire. We did not need to recreate it in the rest of WvW.

Blobbing begets blobbing. Dumbed-down combat, decreased populations, lack of required attention to objectives, lack of things to do, increased time and material costs, and frustrating maps conspire cyclically to push people to cluster together. It’s all that’s left. The enemy is doing the same thing.

When making changes for WvW, one must remember that any in-game system that demands resources will always favor the larger group over the smaller group. The more such systems one implements, the more one is impelling players to join a large group. As there are natural limits on player capacities per map, these players will join a single large group. The only advantage a small group has over a large group is the out-of-game element of coordination. It is simply easier to direct fifteen than it is to direct fifty. Couple this precision with skill, and the small group becomes a threat to the large group, encouraging the latter to separate into more effective units, allowing different players to pursue different passions within the game mode.

Playstyles

Players of games like GW2 have all sorts of motivations and approaches, but for our purposes we will simplify the list to the two that most dominate in competitive play: Playing to Win, and Playing for the Challenge.

The former just wants to win. It will do what it has to do to win, and in WvW that means maximizing PPT. The latter tries to win, but does not let the pursuit of victory destroy the thrill of competition, which in WvW has diverse manifestations, from refusing to run certain builds to disdaining certain tactics and so forth. Previously, WvW allowed for both types. The list of changes implemented, dating back for years, seems ever intent on encouraging those who are trying at all costs to win, even though there is essentially nothing to win. When you favor one style overmuch, you drive out the other, and the participating population decreases. With nobody around, winning doesn’t mean as much any more.

There have always been complainers in WvW, and there always will be. And there will always be those that accept being slapped in the face. In the middle lie the majority of WvW players. They are complaining now, and they are disappointed now and they have left, because they see a long line of changes that reflect either an attitude of disinterest or a lack of understanding from those that control the game, and the players see the game mode that they enjoyed being taken away and turned into something that they do not. When they seek answers, they are given silence; when they seek improvements, they are given gimmicks; when they seek corrections, they are told to wait.

Here we are. What have you got?

Many good observations which with I have few disagreements. One is that Lords are not all stronger, some are very easy to solo. NWT and Garri Lords are jokes which even at T3 can be taken by one player. South Towers can be solo capped at T1 by all classes with higher tiers being more difficult based upon your class. NET Lord seems the best Tower Lord, at T1 he isnt hard to handle but once his minions come out he is a bear. Also the nerfs to chill are seldom mentioned, I laugh that Anet gave necro a chill based build then nerfed it right off the bat.

Absolutely perfect post and I generally have problems agreeing with anyone.

Very Very good post. Specially what you wrote about the stability changes, that indeed ruined WvW for smaller servers and made the matchups even less balanced

You forgot to mention the new classes, insane damage mitigation with Revenants and Tempests, and crazy damage burst of the revenant hammer 2 that 1-shot the backline.

Well written, +1. My guild just made the “we’re done with GW2 raiding” post on our guild forums and we’re playing other games. Our drivers, along with other core members just can no longer spare the kittens to keep trying. The out of touch, poorly designed and implemented HoT additions aside, the matches have very little to offer other than boring EBG blobs orbiting around SM and the small man scene is now a joke 95% of the time. The ecosystem of old is gone and this game’s potential is not far behind.